Postdigital Music Marketing in the Brat Era of Charli XCX: Identity, Transmedia Storytelling and Cultural Phenomenon

Abstract

This paper examines the marketing campaign surrounding Brat (2024), the album by British artist Charli XCX, with the aim of understanding how a musical brand is constructed through expanded cultural strategies and transmedia storytelling. The research seeks to identify the main communicative actions associated with the release, explore the aesthetic and symbolic construction of the album’s identity, and assess its impact in cultural, social and commercial terms. The methodological approach adopted is qualitative, with a descriptive and interpretative orientation, and is based on an instrumental case study. A content and semiotic analysis was carried out on a corpus composed of visual materials, digital publications, interviews, graphic campaigns and audience-generated content. The findings reveal a highly integrated marketing strategy, defined by aesthetic coherence (neon green, generic typography), community activation (digital tools, memes, viral challenges), physical experiences (urban murals, pop-up concerts), and the orchestration of collaborations and digital media within a transmedia ecosystem. The concept of brat summer enabled the narrative of the album to expand into other cultural domains such as fashion, politics and generational discourse. It is concluded that Brat represents an exemplary model of contemporary music marketing, where meaning-making, audience involvement and strategic brand planning shape a shared cultural experience that goes beyond the musical product itself.